Brian Heyman here for Chad today at Yankee Stadium for this homestand finale. This is game six of 13 straight coming out of the break. Curtis Granderson had started 89 of the first 90 games, 88 of them in center. But Joe Girardi picked today to sit him at the start with lefty Ricky Romero going for the Blue Jays.

“If I’m going to take a day off for him, I’m going to do (it against) a left-hander,” Joe Girardi said. “I think on the road trip we’re going to see six out of seven right-handers, so I just chose today.”

The Yankees have scored at least three runs in 41 straight games, becoming just the third team in the Live Ball Era to do that in a single season, joining the 1994 Cleveland Indians and the 1930 Philadelphia Athletics.

“It’s still amazing,” Girardi said. “You expect them to score runs with this club and the home runs we hit. But there are going to be days when pitchers throw the ball extremely well and runs are tough to come by. But our guys have done a good job of just finding a way in some of those tough games to scratch some runs across.”

Robinson Cano will try to extend his career-high hitting streak to 21 games. The 20-game run is the longest active streak in the majors. Derek Jeter is the last Yankee to have a longer streak in a single season at 25 games in 2006. It’s the longest by a Yankees regular second baseman since Joe Gordon’s 29-game streak in 1942. Cano is batting .405 with six homers and 20 RBI in this stretch. He has delivered at least two hits in 11 of the 20 games.

“I’m excited about it now,” Girardi said. “I mean, 20-game hit streak, it means that he’s being productive. As far as how far it goes, I really haven’t thought too much about that. I think all of us expect Robbie to put good at-bats every day. When he does that, he’s going to get his base hits. So him hitting in 20-straight games doesn’t really surprise me.”

Girardi doesn’t see the streak being a burden to Cano at this time.

“I think he’s pretty carefree,” Girardi said. “I don’t think he would focus on it yet. If it got to be way up there, I think every player, no matter how carefree you are, you’d focus on it a little bit because you’d be asked questions. But right now I don’t think he thinks much about it.”

Girardi said Joba Chamberlain’s next rehab outing should be Friday. Girardi had no update on Brett Gardner’s MRI results. And Mariano Rivera rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.